Following Bowl Games, Chuba Hubbard’s NCAA Rushing Title Looks Safe

Chuba Hubbard nearly hit the 2,100-yard mark last week against Texas A&M in the Texas Bowl, but it was until Wisconsin played in yesterday’s Rose Bowl that he could know for sure that he’d locked up the 2019 NCAA rushing title.

The Badgers’ Jonathan Taylor ran it 21 times for 94 yards against Oregon, and Chuba is your champ (unless BC’s AJ Dillon goes for 400 against Cincinnati in the Birmingham Bowl or Travis Etienne puts up 500 on LSU in the national title).

Let’s look at the big three RBs in college football this year and where they ended things statistically. Hubbard was the most impressive overall — especially when you look at it on a per-game average (Ohio State and Wisconsin both had an extra game — but Taylor and JK Dobbins got him on a per-carry basis (so did Etienne, who averaged 8.0 (!!) yards per carry on 192 carries).

I should also note that a QB (!) came in second to Hubbard in the rushing race. Navy’s Malcolm Perry had 2,017 yards after he put 304 on Army and 213 on Kansas State (poor Kansas State got 500 from the top two rushers this year) in his final two games. But I wanted to go RBs only since we’ve been hollering about the Doak Walker Award for the last few weeks. Here are the numbers.

It’s pretty wild that they all finished within 91 yards of each other and all had the exact same number of touchdowns.

We can argue this into the ether — what else is the internet for? — but the reality here is that all three had tremendous seasons. Chuba’s season-ending streak of 11 straight 100-yard games is preposterous, and the fact that his only non-100-yard game came against McNeeses is equally hilarious.

Dobbins was surreal in that lights-out Fiesta Bowl, and he put up 150+ on Penn State, Michigan, Wisconsin and Clemson to end the season. Taylor on Wednesday became just the second player to rack up 2K in two different seasons (Troy Davis).

And yet — and yet! — you could argue that Chuba was better than them all. Add 2019 NCAA rushing champ to his hilariously lengthy list of accomplishments last season. Now there’s just one more thing to tick off the box …

Return to do it all again: ☑️